Amidst Media Blackout Balochistan Becomes Hub of Terrorism

Amidst Media Blackout Balochistan Becomes Hub of Terrorism

The Pakistani army and security forces have converted the interior of Balochistan into a no-go zone for media, foreign diplomats, humanitarian agencies, and United Nations officials. The state is intentionally concealing human rights abuses, and has restricted the entry of international humanitarian agencies who have offered assistance to victims of the September 2013 Mashky Awaran earthquake, and to members of the Bugti and Marri tribes internally displaced by a brutal Pakistani military operation in 2006.In Balochistan, the two former leading newspapers, Daily Assap and Daily Tawar, both had a reputation for reporting from a Baloch perspective, and promoting secularism in Balochistan. However, both periodicals have been forced to cease publication. In February of 2009, the chief editor of Daily Assap, Baloch intellectual Jan Mohammad Dashti, was attacked in Quetta, and struck by bullets in the head and arm. State agents also harassed and threatened Khadim Lehdi, the chief editor of the Daily Tawar, along with the rest of his team. The Daily Tawar office in Karachi was subsequently burned to the ground, killing dozens of young Baloch reporters.In 2011, an Islamabad-based correspondent for the UK Guardian, Declan Welsh, penned an article about human rights abuses in Balochistan, entitled “Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War"; many observers believe his reporting compelled Pakistani authorities to demand that he leave the country. Similarly, William Marx, an author and journalist whose book Balochistan at a Crossroads shed light on the plight of the Baloch people, was refused a visa by a Pakistani consular official in New York.Many Baloch leaders, citizens, and members of the diaspora believe the Pakistani regime is violating international law. Its denial of international assistance to victims of the 2013 earthquake, at a time of desperate need, is one example. Chris Lockyear, the local operations manager of Doctors Without Borders, urged the Pakistani authorities to “allow impartial humanitarian assistance into the Awaran area in order to respond to any unmet needs.” Dr. Allah Nazir, chief of the Baloch Liberation Front and a resident of the earthquake-afflicted region, stated soon after the disaster that his organization would favor the succor of international humanitarian agencies over the assistance of the local administration, because the role of the Pakistani army in Balochistan was not to help, but rather to kill.Some of the individuals and families displaced by the 2013 earthquake had experienced dislocation before. In 2006, thousands of Bugti and Marri people were forced to flee their homes and huts following a brutal Pakistani military operation in the Dera Bugti and Kohlu regions. As stated in an October 2007 report from the International Crisis Group, 84,000 people were uprooted by the conflict in those two districts alone. The displaced persons, mostly women (26,000) and children (33,000) were living in makeshift camps without adequate shelter in Jaferabad, Nasserabad, Quetta, Sibi, and Bolan districts. Twenty-eight percent of children five and younger were acutely malnourished, and more than six percent were in a state of “severe” malnourishment. Over 80 percent of fatalities among those surveyed were among children under five. The media were denied access to the camps and the homes of people in the conflict zones, making it near impossible for journalists to verify the facts on the ground. The authorities instructed a UN official deployed in the area not to speak to the media; shortly thereafter, the government went a step further, blocking access to the UN and other aid agencies. Local NGOs, including the Edhi Foundation—a provider of humanitarian aid and social services to people in need—were also stymied. Recently, the Pakistani army has adopted a new and dangerous policy in Balochistan: namely, sponsorship of extremists from other parts of the country as a counterweight to the secular Baloch national liberation movement. These extremists have been known to attack ethnic and religious minorities such as Hazara, Hindus, and Christians. They are also implicated in the murders of Zikri people, and Baloch political activists. The effect of their presence has been to sow fear among the peaceful citizens of Balochistan. A variety of hardline organizations operate with the support of the Pakistani army, including the Taliban-affiliated Lashkar-e-Khorasan, the Tahafuz e Hududullah, Aljehad, Nefaz e Aman Balochistan, Lashkari E Islam, Alfurqan, Ansar ul Islam, and Lashkari e Jangui eh. One of the objectives of these reactionary organizations has been to restrict Baloch children, especially women and girls, from attaining a modern education. Their actions to this effect include setting fire to schools in Panjgur and Turbat, numerous threats of violence, and even abductions of teachers. They distribute pamphlets in cities in Balochistan admonishing Baloch women and girls not to seek education, nor learn English, and warning of adverse consequences to those who disobey. These are no idle threats, as schoolgirls and young women in Balochistan have been victims of acid-throwing; extremists also attacked a bus filled with female university students in Quetta.For decades, the Pakistani state has contrived to entrench illiteracy and backwardness in Balochistan. This repressive policy has seriously hindered the ability of the Baloch people to stand up and fight for their birthright through legal and diplomatic channels. For centuries, members of different faiths have enjoyed religious freedom and coexisted harmoniously in Balochistan, but the situation that is unfolding there now is a grave and terrifying departure from that benign history. Presently, the Baloch people lack a voice on the international stage; thus, in the view of exiled Baloch leader Hyrbyair Marri; the primary goal of impartial nations and NGOs should be to seek representation at the UN for Balochistan, Kurdistan, and other non-state nations. In any case, the international community, and especially the democratic world, must attend to this grim reality, and seek a peaceful, long-term solution. Otherwise, the prospect of a bloodbath at the hands of Jihadi hardliners, as in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, looms menacingly on the horizon.